Soon The Moon Will Smoulder
by Green Amber
Summary: In order for Ichigo's Hollow to gain his name, sacrifices had to be made. A tale of the choices that Shirayuki and Zangetsu made in order to ensure a future. ZangetsuShirayuki. NejibanaShirayuki.


**Title:** And Soon the Moon Will Smoulder

**Series:** Bleach

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

**Dedication:** For Percy, who demanded Hollow!Ichigo and who loves the creepy bastards. I hope that this is creepy enough for you.

**Characters/Pairings:** Shirosaki, Shirayuki, Zangetsu, Nejibana, Senbonzakura; Zangetsu/Shirayuki, Nejibana/Shirayuki

**Rating:** PG-13

**Summary:** In order for Ichigo's Hollow to gain his name, sacrifices had to be made. A tale of the choices that Shirayuki and Zangetsu made in order to ensure a future.

**Notes:** My inspiration for this piece was the songs from the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel: "Madame Guillotine", "Falcon in the Dive", "Where's the Girl" and "The Riddle".

* * *

When she came into his world, she brought the nameless one with her. Or rather, the darkness that had tainted her very soul went and woke the nameless one up.

The nameless one had taken one look at Zangetsu and said: "I am the future."

He had then looked upon the Lady who had woken him up. Like him, her skin was white and so was her hair. But, her eyes were the blue of the Arctic depths, and her lips and finger nails were the colour of blood. The nameless one gazed upon her and said: "You are my future."

The Lady graced him with a smile, and reached out to touch his face. The nameless one closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. "Take off my chains."

She laughed, and pulled at one of the long thin black chains that circled around his neck. The chain wouldn't move for her. She looked into his angry yellow and black eyes and laughed again. "It appears that it is too soon for me to attempt to break your chains. After all, it is not the future yet."

She went to move her hand from the chains. A large pale hand grabbed her wrist, and pulled her closer. Zangetsu didn't move as he watched them. "Don't lie to me," the nameless one sneered. "You could remove them with a snap of your fingers and you know it. Now. Take. Them. Off."

She raised a fine brow. "Doesn't your hand feel cold? I'd let go, if I were you. Metal burns do hurt so." The hand around her wrist was covered in a light frost that was beginning to get heavier. "And I'd rather you broke from those chains yourself. Neither I nor my mistress have any interest in a man and his zanpaktou who cannot break out of such feeble chains as these." She pulled up a small chain that was wrapped around his pinky finger. It fell to ash in her hand. "Break these chains and you'll have me."

The chained monster grinned. "I always did like a challenge." He pulled her towards him and kissed her lips, before letting her go. "You taste of blood. Glorious blood."

The White Lady licked her lips. "You forgot guilt and despair. I taste of that as well."

The nameless one did not answer as Zangetsu had now regained control. He stared at the woman, and wordlessly held up his hand. He was missing a pinky.

There was no emotion in her eyes as she spoke. "To create a future there must be sacrifices." She held up her own hand, and his eyes were drawn to the dripping red that were her fingernails.

"It isn't your choice to make." He admolished.

"You're right. It's yours." And then, she walked away from him and into the rain.

XXX

The World was changing. Little by little. Flowers sprung up through the concrete where the lady stepped and there was no longer as much rain as there had been before. The sun now shone more and more brightly as each day passed.

Her laughter rang out constantly, like the wind passing among icicles. And he found himself seeking to put himself in her presence.

The nameless one did not attempt to emerge out into the world anymore, and Zangetsu was almost completely at peace. But he knew that the monster was only waiting for the chains to snap and for the moment when he can claim his name and his kingdom.

_"We must all make a choice. And we must all make a sacrifice. What will be yours?_

He asked her now, as she sat perched one of the sideways buildings. "What did you pay?"

She stared at him for a moment, as if she were unsure of what he was asking before licking her lips. "We split the blood of the one man we ever truly loved. We killed him to save ourselves because we were too weak to save him."

He tried to hide his surprise. "You loved someone?" The question does not come out quite as it should.

She stood up from her perch and leaned so that Zangetsu was tempted to grab her arm before she should fall. She brought a hand to her bloody lips and kissed each finger, staring off into the past.

"He was water and I was water. And together, we were a typhoon to be reckoned with." Her answer does not come out as it should either. "We were so selfish and weak that we could only kill him because we could not bare to see him suffer."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she jumped before he could utter a word.

XXX

"Hide." Was the only word that brushed past the Lady's lips before she covered the world with snow, including him.

A moment later, a woman made of sakura petals grapped the Lady's arm in a hard grasp.

"Thou have been gone too long sister." Blood began to stain the White Lady's robes. "Oh, how we have missed thee."

The White Lady regarded her sister, unimpressed. "Is what you're doing supposed to hurt us?"

The imperial Queen continued to make the blood spill. "We would cut out thine heart if we believed it could save thee. But thou are no longer clean, so it would be pointless."

The White Lady gave a hint of a smile. "Everything is pointless to you, sister. I never attempted to be any different."

"Thou are a fool." The Queen spat, her face became ugly. "A common cur. We should never have taken such an ungrateful slut into our presence." She smacked the White Lady hard across the cheek.

The White Lady only laughed. "Oh where, oh where is your heart? I would help you find it again sister, if I only felt that you were worthy."

"If we were worthy?" The Queen sputtered, looking furious. She grabbed the hair of the other and wrenched the White Lady towards her. "Dost thou not realize who thou are speaking to?"

The nameless one's laughter began to ring out through the walls, and soon the White Lady's laughter joined his.

"Watch out sister, oh watch out. Your pride will destroy all that you once loved and could have loved."

The Queen shook her so hard that the White Lady's teeth rattled. "This place has changed thou for the worst. We never should have let thou go."

The White Lady continued laughing. "Will you lock me up in a cage again, sister? A bird that has been freed will never return to the cage."

The nameless one's laughter grew.

The Queen began to look worried. "There is someone else here." She stared down at her sister, whose lips still bled. "Who is here?"

"Who is not here?" The White Lady screamed. "Run sister, run! Run and you might be able to cling onto your pride. Oh! Run from the future!"

She was cut off as her sister's sharp boot found her side. Blood splattered onto the ground. "Oh my poor, poor sister... You do not realize do you? Your chains no longer bind me to you. I am free."

The Queen grabbed her by the arm. "We are taking thee away from here. Doesn't thou realize? We love thee, so therefore we will save thee from thyself."

The buildings began to shake in their very foundations as the nameless one's laughter continued to pierce through the rain that now pounded down from the sky. Lighting pierced the sky and the two women disappeared leaving Zangetsu behind, his fingers crumbling.

XXX

The rain continued to fall from the sky and the buildings continued to rumble. The nameless one was waking up.

"Ichigo!" Zangetsu screamed to the boy. "Pull me out!"

The confused boy grabbed the handle of the blade and attempted to pull it out of the box.

"HURRY!"

The nameless one was coming. The nameless one was coming. The nameless one was coming.

Black chains began to snap like twigs. Zangetsu could barely contain his future counterpart.

"I'm coming Zangetsu! I'm coming!" The nameless one screamed.

The boy pulled out the sword and assumed the crown of his kingdom. But the damage had already been done. The nameless one was now free.

"The future is now."

Zangetsu shook his head. "Not yet."

XXX

_We must all make sacrifices. What will be yours?_

Her words rang through his head as he now showed Ichigo the secret to Bankai. Everyday, he could feel the nameless one getting stronger and stronger as he came into power.

But he found that he no longer cared, just as Ichigo no longer cared how tired he was. Rukia was waiting. She was waiting for him, and there was no chance in Hell that he wasn't going to reach her in time. And when he reached her, this time he wasn't going to let go.

The sun shone in the sky, while at the same time thunder constantly rang out.

Rukia was waiting.

Rukia was waiting.

The White Lady was waiting.

The White Lady was waiting.

And time was running out.

Another black chain snapped.

XXX

The nameless one was no longer nameless.

He walked through the passages of his domain and reveled in the fact that he now had a name.

He was no longer nameless.

He was Zangetsu.

XXX

He saw the White Lady in all her ethernal glory once again, shortly after he had gained his name.

Her hair was as white as his, and her lips were still the red of a murdered man.

She smiled when she saw him and he went to kiss her lips. But she moved away from him.

"Can't you tell?" She asked, giving him a sad smile. "I'm the past, I have not become the future yet."

"Should I care?" He twisted some long ivory locks in his hand and pulled her face towards his. "Past, present, and future? They are all stupid labels that merely serve to chain us to the ground." He tasted her lips and came away with his own pale lips painted a deep red. "I am Zangetsu and you are..."

He was cut off as the White Lady touched her lips to his. "Wait." She breathed. "Wait for me." And then she released him. "You once worked hard to prove that you were worthy of me, now let me make myself worthy of what you longed for." She took a step away from Zangetsu.

He licked his lips and grinned. "You no longer taste as bitter as you once did."

She laughed. "Perhaps meeting you might have been a good thing afterall."

He took her hand. "Not that you'll ever admit it."

The White Lady smiled upon him. "You speak the truth."

XXX

Nejibana had always been so strong, with ragged dark blue hair the colour of the sea. When he had laughed the world had laughed with him. When he had been angry, cities fell to his might. And when he had chosen to love her of all people, there really hadn't been anything that the White Lady had been able to do.

He was her world, and she loved him.

And when he chose to kill her, the White Lady knew not where her fury came from, nor the longing for his blood to run on her tongue.

The sky rained red.

XXX

When Zangetsu came across the broken Shirayuki and her mistress, having taken control of the King's body, he barely recognized the woman before him.

Like himself, she had taken on a new form that greatly resembled that of her mistress, including the black robes that hung onto her body.

She sat in the middle of the room filled with salt water and blood, sobbing. Her eyes were now red and her lips were no longer the shade of a dead man's blood.

"Shirayuki?" The name rang off his tongue, as he knelt beside her. A pale hand curled around the back of her neck.

She laughed amongst the sobs. "It tastes so wonderful, Zangetsu. So wonderful, his blood." She grabbed his face and kissed him.

He choked on the intoxicating taste of the blood on her lips.

She laughed. "Do I disgust you? I am no longer pure. I'm tainted. Oh so tainted."

This time, it was his turn to laugh. "The moment you become tainted, I become a Saint." He touched her sleeve and the darkness of her robe bleed into his own, leaving her own robe white.

Shirayuki looked shocked as she stared down at his hand. "Why?"

He shrugged easily. "I like blood." He picked her broken body up in his arms, and her arms flew around his neck. "Especially the blood on your lips."


End file.
